Lightning’s Cooper says Kucherov still fully committed to team despite trade request
The hockey world is still reeling from Friday’s stunning news that superstar winger Nikita Kucherov has requested a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, for his part, is doing his best to restore a sense of normalcy for the remainder of the season, at least.
Cooper spoke to the media ahead of Tampa Bay’s game against the Nashville Predators on Saturday, addressing Kucherov’s trade request and what it may or may not mean for his team this season.
“I will sit here and tell you nothing has changed in what our goals are this year — just, maybe, the context of how it is going to go about,” Cooper said. “Kuch is 100 percent a part of this team. He wants to be a part of this team for this season and he is committed to be with the group that loves him and the group he loves.”
While it is highly difficult, if not outright impossible, to reconcile Kucherov’s trade request with the idea that “he wants to be a part of this team for this season”, Cooper is trying to prevent this season from going off the rails. Keeping Kucherov in the fold and his team focused are essential to maintaining the Lightning’s Stanley Cup aspirations. Tampa Bay general manager Julien Brisebois has stated that the team has no intention of trading Kucherov.
Cooper also tried to preemptively nip any conjecture about Kucherov’s level of happiness in Tampa Bay in the bud.
“What I don’t want to get skewed in all of this is if Kuch turns the puck over or the play does not go exactly his way and he shows frustration or, at some point, the coach who is coaching him is showing frustration with him or somebody else on the team and then everybody says ‘Oh my God. He wants out’,” Cooper said. “That will not be th case. Jon Cooper will coach the team the way Jon Cooper has always coached the team and Kuch is going to play like the superstar he is and the way he has for a decade and a half and that is how it is going to continue. All the rest of it is outside noise and, for Kuch internally, what happens after our season is over, that’s Kuch’s right and he has earned that right for whatever happens. For us, it probably made the team stonger.”
